Anirban Lahiri returns to Top-50 in world

New Delhi: It was a great week for Anirban Lahiri as he returned to Top-50 in world rankings, besides regaining his Top-10 place in the Race to Dubai list of European Tour and also extending his lead on Asian Tour Merit list by over half a million dollars.

He is also expected to be back in Top-10 of Presidents Cup standings, which if he maintains till September will earn him an automatic spot on International team and make him the first Indian to do so.

Lahiri returned to Top-50 after being edged out three weeks ago. The Bangalore golfer, who finished outright fifth at the Omega European Masters, earned 7.68 points and that carried his total points to an average of 2.4360 and to 50th place. It was a jump of 11 places from where he was after the British Open last week.

Lahiri, who won the Malaysian Open and the Hero Indian Open this season, registered his first Top-5 finish since February and picked up USD 123,956 to take his season's tally to USD 925,484 on Asian Tour and went past the Million Euro mark in Europe and is placed ninth.

Lahiri also extended his lead on the Asian Tour Money to more than half a million dollars and is also back into Top-10 on the Race to Dubai list, which will put him in line for a bonus for being in Top-15 of the European Merit list. He is also likely to move into Top-10 of the President's Cup standings and become the first Indian to play the President's Cup in Korea from October 8-11, 2015.

If Lahiri, who was third and second in the past two seasons, stays on top of the Merit list at the end of the season, he will become the fourth Indian after Jyoti Randhawa (2002), Arjun Atwal (2003) and Jeev Milkha Singh (2006 and 2008) to become Asia's number one. In Asia, too, Lahiri is also hoping to top the million dollar mark and become only the third player after countryman Jeev Milkha Singh and Kiradech Aphibarnrat of Thailand to do so.

"I'm going to play in at least four to five events on the Asian Tour towards the end of the year. Hopefully I can keep playing well and it'll be nice to finally get over the line. I finished third in 2013 and second last year. So winning the Order of Merit this year would be nice," Lahiri said.

There are several big money events coming up towards the end of the year, including the CIMB Classic and WGC-HSBC Champions. Lahiri was delighted to hit top form, especially with his final round fireworks display in Switzerland.

"I'm happy to be playing well again. I had a very good start to the year and played well in the beginning but I didn't play anywhere near my best after that. I feel like my form is coming back. It's an important time of the year and hopefully I can keep this going," said Lahiri, who finished tied 30th at The Open at St Andrews.

Lahiri takes a short break with family in Europe itself and will then head to the United States for next month's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and the US PGA Championship, the final major of the season. On the Asian Tour money list, another Indian, SSP Chawrasia is placed third on the Asian Tour Money List.

Lahiri's lead over second placed Andrew Dodt is now USD 548,348. Australian Scott Hend on USD 258,781 and Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand on USD 232,740 are fourth and fifth.